Hades and Persephone
by elsiecarson
Summary: Hades is working too hard and Persephone decides to distract him for the rest of the evening. She wants him to relax before they go to Olympus for a family lunch
1. Sweetness and Seducation

I walk into Hades' study carrying two glasses of ambrosia. "You've been working awfully hard today, my lord. I brought you a glass of ambrosia to enjoy before dinner." I say as I come up behind him.

"Hello, darling," Hades says absentmindedly as he continues to read the document on his desk. He can often be found thus in deep contemplation, but frustrated.

"You look tense. What have you been up to today, Hades?" I ask as I begin to massage his back. I can feel that he bottles up his tension along his shoulder blades. His tension is noticeable and palpable.

"Sometimes I hate the amount of reading I have to do in this job. The memos I get are utterly depressing." Hades says as he runs his hands over his face.

"Take a break. Come and sit down with me and have your ambrosia. Forget about the stresses of the day and relax with me." I say as I extend my hand to my husband.

"You look beautiful today, my darling Persephone." Hades says as he sinks onto the black micro suede sofa and takes a long sip of his ambrosia. "Oh I needed this." He says as I come and sit next to him.

"You're still taking tomorrow off to have a family picnic on Olympus, aren't you?" I ask as I lean against Hades' chest.

"Of course, my darling Persephone. I promised you that I would go with you and I will despite my better judgement." Hades says as he slips his arm around my shoulders. "What colour are you wearing tomorrow?"

"I don't know, Hades. Why do you ask? You've never been concerned about such things before." I chuckle at Hades' question.

"I should at least try to look like a regular, attentive, devoted husband (which I am, but in a different way than my brother wants me to be) while I'm on Olympus. Zeus and Demeter will have my head if I don't appear to be making an effort to impress them." Hades says as he sips his ambrosia.

"Oh, Hades, you don't have to seek father and mother's approval by changing yourself. I know that you're attentive and devoted to me and I've expressed that to mother, in particular, to try and change her opinion of you." I say as I place my hand on his cheek and I feel him shiver. He's still shocked that I love him so much.

Hades pulls me into his lap and holds me tightly in his strong arms and says, "You give me such strength, Persephone. If I'd known you were singing my praises to your mother I wouldn't have been so concerned about tomorrow. Your mother has my brother wrapped around her little finger. My brother loves both of us enough to fight for our relationship, but we'll see what happens with Hera."

"Why are you still so concerned about Hera? You have influence over her." I say as I slip my hand inside Hades' toga.

"Because Hera has influence over Zeus and if Zeus turns on us we're toast. We need to keep them on our side." Hades says as he puts his wine glass down.

"You've forgotten one very important thing." I say as I scratch my nails down Hades' bare chest.

"What's that? What insight do you have?" Hades asks as he links his fingers together behind my back.

"That Hera worships the ground you walk on and she's loved you, in a non-sibling way, for a long time. She'll always be on your side." I say winking at Hades cheekily.

"How did you know about that?" Hades asks snappily, teasing me, as he gets up, pulls me with him, and walks me to the small dining room.

"You only have to look at Hera looking at you to see that she thinks that you could have had something special. Hera's wrapped around your little finger." I say as Hades pulls out my chair for me.

"Cheeky," Hades says as he kisses the top of my head. "It's a good thing that you know that I couldn't imagine being with anyone but you, hey."

"It's a good thing that I know that we love each other very much and we can endure through anything, even my mother's vindictiveness." I say as I tap Hades' nose.

"You're so sweet. I don't deserve you." Hades says sweetly.

"Oh, Hades, now you know that that simply isn't true. You deserve me because you love me and you gave me freedom to live my life." I finish speaking just as our servants enter the room with our meal.

"It's a very good thing I love you so much and that you're so discreet or you could ruin my reputation." Hades says to me cheekily.

"Your reputation was ruined when you told Zeus for the first time that you truly loved me." I say smirking at him over the rim of my wine glass.

"Ha, ha," Hades says as he mixes his pasta dish and stirs his parmesan cheese in. The rest of dinner is quiet and calm. "Come with me." Hades requests as he walks the length of the table and extends his hand to me.

Wordlessly, feeling as if I am floating on a cloud, I follow Hades down the hall to one of the smaller ballrooms which is currently decorated with thousands of tiny fairy lights. Hades snaps his fingers and somewhere overhead soft music begins to play. "Dance with me." Hades whispers in my ear.

"You never dance, Hades." I say as I squeeze his hand and smile sweetly at him.

"Tonight I'm making an exception." Hades says as he slips his arm around my waist and pulls me close. "Just because I don't dance doesn't mean I can't."

"I never said you couldn't dance, Hades. You're being so sweet tonight. You are being overly concerned. You haven't been like this since we first got married." I say as we waltz across the floor. I feel so comfortable and safe in Hades' arms. "I love being like this with you." I whisper in his ear.

"I love being like this with you, too. It's so rare to have this amount of time during the week to spend with you. You dance so beautifully, Persephone." Hades whispers into my curly, auburn hair.

"I don't dance half as well with anyone else but you. With you leading the way I never feel that I'll make a misstep. You're so steady for me." I say as Hades twirls me out and pulls me in tightly to him.


	2. Bubble Baths and Massages

"Hades, I'm tired. Are you ready to come with me or shall I head to bed without you? Do you still have work to do tonight?" I ask as I lean my cheek on Hades' chest and listen to his heart beat beneath his charcoal toga. It's a reassuring sound.

"I know I should stay up and finish my reading, but my brain is too muddled to even consider it right now. The heat gets to me. Come, Persephone, let's get to bed. I don't want your mother to think you're not sleeping." Hades says as he puts his arm around my shoulders and we pad, in bare feet, down the hall in the direction of our bedroom.

"Heaven forbid that mother should think ill of you… Oops, she already does!" I say as I poke Hades in the side gently. I enjoy teasing him and he's very good-natured about it all. He knows I don't really mean it.

"All right, that's quite enough out of you, my lady. If we don't get some sleep we won't be ready for tomorrow." Hades teases as he picks me up and walks into the bedroom. He kisses my forehead and places my feet gently on the floor.

I smile up at up at the handsome visage I love and cup his cheeks in my palms. 'Go and have a hot bath, my love. I'll change into my nightgown and give you a nice back massage when you come out." I say as I open the closet and reach in for my crimson nightgown. I know his back bothers him more than he lets on.

"That's the best idea I've heard from anyone all day. I'm simply exhausted." Hades sighs openly, collects pyjama pants from the closet, drops his toga on the floor, I watch a beautiful bum walk away from me as he enters the bathroom. Moments later, I hear the water running and see the steam pour out from under the door. He always did like an extremely hot bath.

I smirk as I think of Hades submerged in a hot, bubble bath. It doesn't seem like him to have a bubble bath, but then he always manages to surprise me. I pad to the bed and lay languidly across it. The satin coverlet is so cool in the heat of the early autumn. I look up at the moving, swirling ceiling that Hades had installed. The stormy grey tones are oddly calming. When I was young I loved sitting on my window seat watching a snow storm or a thunderstorm down on Earth. I close my eyes and take several deep breaths. When I finally open my eyes again Hades is lying next to me staring at the ceiling. He's only wearing pyjama pants and so I can see all his chest muscles. The heat is getting to both of us. My hair is fanned out across my pillow and Hades rakes his long fingers through it as he sits on the edge of the bed. He's more romantic than I ever thought possible.

"That feels so nice." I say turning towards him. I reach up with one hand towards his face and guide him towards me. I kiss him gently and run my fingernails down his back. "Lay on your tummy and I'll get rid of all the tension in your back. You've had a long day."

Hades lies down with his face turned to the side so he can breathe. I straddle Hades' waist and begin to firmly massage his back. I need to be that close in order to get enough leverage to put pressure on his back. I find lots of knots in his back and push hard in those spots. I hear him moan underneath me. "I'm not hurting you am I?" I ask with concern in my voice. I don't actually know what I'm doing.

"No, that feels wonderful. I didn't know I'd done that much damage to my back by just sitting at my desk. My back is in worse shape than I thought." Hades says with a deep sigh.

"It's because you don't move enough during the day. Your back seizes in certain spots because it's in the same position for so long. You need to remember to get up and move around every half hour or so. You should walk around while you're reading. I don't actually have the strength in my hands to help this a lot." I say doing my best to firmly press on the knots that have developed in his back.

"You have magic fingers, don't worry, you can't actually hurt me remember. Just press as hard as you can. Those knots need to go. I can lay on the floor and you can walk on my back if you're finding that you're having trouble with your hands."Hades suggests as he looks back at his wife. He wants to make things easier for her.

"That's a good idea. I have very strong feet. Go on, lay down on the floor and I'll see what I can do." I say gently giving my husband a final maneuver with my fingers.

Hades stands up and lays down on the cool marble floor and waits for me to move. I sit down on the floor next to him and slip my shoes off. I carefully stand up on his back and hold my arms out to the side to balance myself. I squidge my toes into his back to massage the muscles. I rise and fall as he breathes in and out very deeply. I can feel him relax with the passing moments. It's so nice to have time like this together without interruption which is very rare. "Better?" I ask as I lay over the length of him and whisper in his ear.

"Much better. You are a miracle worker. I may be able to actually sleep now without being in pain. Thank you, sweetheart." Hades muffled voice comes from the crook of his arm. He sounds as if he's almost asleep, but falling asleep on the floor won't help at all.

"Come to bed my love. You're right we both need to sleep before tomorrow. The family will notice if either of us appear to not be sleeping and I can only guess as to the gossip that will go around about that." I climb into bed and wait for Hades to join me.

Hades shudders when he hears his wife's words. He knows she's right. "That's all we need, more rumours to be swirling around about us. I already get ragged on when I go to council meetings. Your father seems to think I've gone soft since I got married. The men all ask very inappropriate questions about you, which I assure you I try to never answer. Apparently you have changed me, but I certainly don't see it as a bad thing." Hades climbs into bed next to me and seems to have ignored the stern look I've shot him, either that or he's thinking about how he can get back at the gods he just mentioned. He's always plotting revenge.

"They ask about our sex life, don't they? Ooh, trust all those dirty old men! Please tell me my father isn't one of the gods who asks!" I plead with Hades.

"If I told you that your father wasn't one of the gods who asked every chance they got, I'd be lying. I try to never answer the questions, but your father always seems to know. He drives me crazy. He says he's waiting for grandchildren from all his children. I don't even think he'd know if he was a grandfather already he has so many children. He drives me nuts. He's my little brother and I don't have to tell him anything if I don't want to, but the things he says to the other gods if I don't tell him things is worse than if I just tell him." Hades sits up against the headboard and sinks his head onto his knees.

"So, my father knows all about our sex life! That's disgusting Hades! He has no right to know and the next time he asks you can tell him so. I know he's my father, but that doesn't give him carte blanche to ask anything he wants and expect answers. He says jump and we all follow orders like he's better than all of us. I can't believe he actually asks you about that!" I can feel my anger growing in me. My parents are the only two that ever make me feel this way: small and unempowered. Hades doesn't normally have to deal with all this anger and I can see the shock on his face.

"Do you know what he does if I don't tell him? He goes around telling the other gods that I actually prefer men to women and I only married you to prevent the gods from continuing to talk about it. He's a cruel man, your father. He knows what makes each god feel uncomfortable enough to give up secrets. I don't know why he wants to know about our sex life, but I know he drives me crazy! I don't want to tell him, but he makes it impossible not to tell him. Your father has always been a manipulative brat! I hate him for what he makes me tell him about you!" Hades says firmly.

"Father and mother are always going to be that way Hades. They're never going to change. They love making anyone feel uncomfortable, especially you because they find it so easy. They don't like that either of us are happy really because they're not. Father hasn't been happy for a very long time. Mother isn't capable of being happy I don't think. She wants to make everyone as unhappy as she is. Oh, they just make me sick! I have half a mind to go tell them how I feel, but they don't listen so there's no point in doing that! When are they going to stop treating me like a baby?" Persephone shouts angrily.

"Zeus still treats me like a baby and I'm his older brother! He doesn't care how he treats people. He never has and he never will. Just look at the way he treats his wife, the woman he claims to love so much! He's despicable! Odds are he'll never stop treating you like a baby if he can't bring himself to give me that courtesy." Hades storms.


End file.
